In the XIII century, the Mongols built an empire with the largest contiguous territory in the history of mankind. It extended from Russia to Southeast Asia and from Korea to the Middle East. Hordes of nomads destroyed hundreds of cities, destroyed dozens of states. The very name of the founder of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan, became a symbol of the whole medieval era.
Jin
The first Mongol conquests affected China. Celestial China did not immediately submit to the nomads. In the Mongol-Chinese wars, it is customary to distinguish three stages. The first was the invasion of the state of Jin (1211-1234). That campaign was led by Genghis Khan himself. His army totaled one hundred thousand people. The neighboring tribes of Uyghurs and Karluks joined the Mongols.
The first city to be captured was Fuzhou in the north of Jin. Not far from it, in the spring of 1211, a major battle took place at the Ekhulin ridge. In this battle, the large professional army of Jin was destroyed. Having gained the first major victory, the Mongol army overcame the Great Wall - an ancient barrier, built even against the Huns. Once in China, it began to rob Chinese cities. For the winter, the nomads retired to their steppe, but have since returned every spring for new attacks.
Under the blows of the steppes, the Jin state began to fall apart. Ethnic Chinese and Khitan began to rebel against the Jurchens who ruled this country. Many of them supported the Mongols, hoping with their help to achieve independence. These calculations were frivolous. Destroying the states of some peoples, the great Genghis Khan did not intend at all to create states for others. For example, the breakaway East Liao from Jin lasted only twenty years. The Mongols skillfully wound up temporary allies. Dealing with their help with opponents, they also got rid of these "friends."
In 1215, the Mongols captured and burned Beijing (then called Zhongdu). For several more years, the steppes acted according to the tactics of raids. After the death of Genghis Khan, his son Ugedei became a kagan (great khan). He went on to conquer tactics. Under Ogedei, the Mongols finally annexed Jin to their empire. In 1234, the last ruler of this state, Aizong committed suicide. The Mongol invasion devastated northern China, but the destruction of the Jin was only the beginning of the triumphal march of nomads across Eurasia.
Xia xia
The Tangut state of Si Xia (Western Xia) became the next country that the Mongols conquered. Genghis Khan conquered this kingdom in 1227. Xi Xia occupied the territory west of Jin. It controlled part of the Great Silk Road, which promised the nomads rich prey. The steppes besieged and ravaged the capital of the Tanguts Zhongxing. Genghis Khan died, returning to his homeland from this campaign. Now his heirs had to finish the work of the founder of the empire.
South Song
The first Mongol conquests concerned the states created by non-Chinese peoples in China. Both Jin and Xi Xia were not Celestial in the full sense of the word. Ethnic Chinese in the 13th century controlled only the southern half of China, where the South Song empire existed. The war with her began in 1235.
For several years, the Mongols attacked China, exhausting the country with incessant raids. In 1238, Song committed to pay tribute, after which the punitive raids stopped. A fragile truce was established for 13 years. The history of the Mongol conquests knows more than one such case. Nomads “put up” with one country in order to concentrate on conquering other neighbors.
In 1251, Munke became the new great khan. He initiated a second war with Song. At the head of the campaign was put the brother of Khan Khubilai. The war went on for many years. The Suna Court surrendered in 1276, although the struggle of individual groups for Chinese independence continued until 1279. Only after that the Mongol yoke was established over the whole Celestial Empire. Back in 1271, Khubilai founded the Yuan Dynasty. She ruled China until the mid-14th century, when she was overthrown as a result of the rebellion of the red blindfolds.
Korea and Burma
On its eastern borders, the state created during the Mongol conquests began to side by side with Korea. The military campaign against her began in 1231. A total of six invasions followed. As a result of the devastating raids, Korea began to pay tribute to the state of Yuan. The Mongol yoke on the peninsula ended in 1350.
At the opposite end of Asia, the nomads reached the limits of the Pagan kingdom in Burma. The first Mongol campaigns in this country date back to the 1270s. Kublai postponed the decisive campaign against Pagan over and over again because of his own failures in neighboring Vietnam. In Southeast Asia, the Mongols had to fight not only with local peoples, but also with an unusual tropical climate. The troops suffered from malaria, which is why they regularly retreated to their native lands. Nevertheless, by 1287, the conquest of Burma was nevertheless achieved.
Invasions of Japan and India
Not all the war of conquest that began the descendants of Genghis Khan ended successfully. Twice (the first attempt was in 1274, the second in 1281), Habilai tried to launch an invasion of Japan. For this purpose, huge flotillas were built in China that had no analogues in the Middle Ages. The Mongols did not have experience in navigation. Their armadas were defeated by Japanese ships. The second expedition to the island of Kyushu was attended by 100 thousand people, but they failed to win.
Another country not conquered by the Mongols was India. The descendants of Genghis Khan heard about the riches of this mysterious land and dreamed of conquering it. The north of India at that time belonged to the Delhi Sultanate. For the first time the Mongols invaded its territory in 1221. Nomads devastated some provinces (Lahore, Multan, Peshawar), but things did not reach the conquest. In 1235, they annexed Kashmir to their state. At the end of the 13th century, the Mongols invaded Punjab and even reached Delhi. Despite the destructiveness of the campaigns, the nomads did not manage to gain a foothold in India.
Karakatian Khanate
In 1218, hordes of Mongols, who had previously fought only in China, first turned their horses to the west. Central Asia was on their way. Here, on the territory of modern Kazakhstan, there was the Karakit Khanate, founded by the Karakites (ethnically close to the Mongols and Khitan).
The long-standing rival of Genghis Khan Kuchluk ruled this state. In preparation for the fight against him, the Mongols drew some other Turkic peoples of the Semirechye to their side. Nomads found support from the Karluk Khan Arslan and the ruler of the city Almalyk Buzar. In addition, they were assisted by settled Muslims, whom the Mongols were allowed to conduct public services (which Kuchluk did not allow to do).
The campaign against the Karakit Khanate was led by one of the main temniks of Genghis Khan Jae. He conquered all of East Turkestan and the Seven Rivers. Having been defeated, Kuchluk fled to the Pamir Mountains. There he was caught and put to death.
Khorezm
The next Mongol conquest, in short, was only the first stage in the conquest of all of Central Asia. In addition to the Karakit Khanate, another large state was the Islamic kingdom of Khorezmshahs, inhabited by Iranians and Turks. Moreover, the nobility in him was Polovtsian (Kipchak). In other words, Khorezm was a complex ethnic conglomerate. Having conquered it, the Mongols skillfully used the internal contradictions of this major power.
Genghis Khan also established outwardly good neighborly relations with Khorezm. In 1215, he sent his merchants to this country. The Mongols needed peace with Khorezm to facilitate the conquest of the neighboring Karakit Khanate. When this state was conquered, it was his neighbor's turn.
The Mongol conquests were already known to the whole world, and in Khorezm, imaginary friendship with the nomads was wary. The pretext for breaking the peaceful relations of the steppes was discovered by chance. The governor of the city of Otrar suspected the Mongol merchants of espionage and executed them. After this thoughtless reprisal, war became inevitable.
Genghis Khan went on a campaign against Khorezm in 1219. Emphasizing the importance of the expedition, he took with him all his sons. Ogedei and Chagatai set off to besiege Otrar. Jochi led the second army, moving towards Jend and Sygnak. The third army aimed at Khojent. Genghis Khan himself, along with his son Toluy, followed to the richest metropolis of the Middle Ages Samarkand. All these cities were captured and plundered.
In Samarkand, where 400 thousand people lived, only every eighth survived. Otrar, Jend, Sygnak and many other cities of Central Asia were completely destroyed (today only archaeological ruins have remained in their place). By 1223, Khorezm was subdued. The Mongol conquests spanned a vast territory from the Caspian Sea to the Indus.
Having conquered Khorezm, the nomads discovered a further road to the west - on the one hand to Russia, and on the other to the Middle East. When the united Mongol empire broke up, the state of the Hulaguids arose in Central Asia, in which the descendants of the grandson of Genghis Khan Hulagu ruled. This kingdom lasted until 1335.
Anatolia
After the conquest of Khorezm, the Seljuk Turks became the western neighbors of the Mongols. Their state, the Koni Sultanate, was located on the territory of modern Turkey on the peninsula of Asia Minor. This region also had another historical name - Anatolia. In addition to the Seljuk state, there were Greek kingdoms - fragments that arose after the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders and the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1204.
The Mongol temnik Baiju, who was the governor in Iran, conquered Anatolia. He called on the Seljuk Sultan Kay-Khosrov II to recognize himself as a tributary of the nomads. The humiliating offer was rejected. In 1241, in response to the demarche, Baiju invaded Anatolia and with the army approached Erzurum. After a two-month siege, the city fell. Its walls were destroyed by catapult shooting, and many residents were killed or robbed.
Kay-Khosrov II, however, was not going to give up. He enlisted the support of the Greek states (the Trebizond and Nicene empires), as well as the Georgian and Armenian princes. In 1243, the army of the anti-Mongol coalition met with the interventionists in the mountain gorge Kese-dag. Nomads used their favorite tactics. The Mongols, pretending to retreat, made a false maneuver and suddenly counterattacked the opponents. The army of the Seljuks and their allies was defeated. After this victory, the Mongols conquered Anatolia. According to the peace treaty, one half of the Koni Sultanate was annexed to their empire, and the other began to pay tribute.
Near East
In 1256, the grandson of Genghis Khan Khulagu led a campaign in the Middle East. The campaign lasted 4 years. It was one of the largest campaigns of the Mongol army. The first under the blow of the steppes was the state of the Nizari in Iran. Khulagu crossed the Amu Darya and captured Muslim cities in Kuhistan.
Having won the Khizarites, the Mongol Khan turned his eyes to Baghdad, where Caliph Al-Mustatim ruled. The last monarch of the Abbasid dynasty did not have enough strength to resist the horde, but he arrogantly refused to peacefully submit to strangers. In 1258, the Mongols besieged Baghdad. The invaders used siege weapons, and then proceeded to storm. The city was completely surrounded and deprived of outside support. Two weeks later, Baghdad fell.
The capital of the Abbasid caliphate, the pearl of the Islamic world, was completely destroyed. The Mongols did not spare the unique architectural monuments, destroyed the academy, and threw valuable books into the Tiger. The looted Baghdad turned into a pile of smoking ruins. Its fall symbolized the end of the medieval Golden Age of Islam.
After the Baghdad events, the Mongol campaign in Palestine began. In 1260, the battle of Ain Jalut took place. Egyptian Mamluks defeated the aliens. The reason for the defeat of the Mongols was the fact that on the eve of Hulagu, learning about the death of the Hagan Munke, he retreated to the Caucasus. In Palestine, he left the military commander Kitbugu with a minor army, which was naturally defeated by the Arabs. The Mongols could not advance further into the Muslim Middle East. The border of their empire was fixed on the Interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates.
Battle of Kalk
The first campaign of the Mongols in Europe began when the nomads, pursuing the escaped ruler of Khorezm, reached the Polovtsian steppes. Then Genghis Khan himself spoke of the need to conquer the Kipchaks. In 1220, the nomad army came to Transcaucasia, from where it moved to the Old World. They devastated the lands of Lezgi peoples in the territory of modern Dagestan. Then the Mongols first encountered the Polovtsy and Alans.
Kipchaks, realizing the danger of uninvited guests, sent the embassy to the Russian lands, asking the East Slavic specific rulers for help. Mstislav Stary (Grand Duke of Kiev), Mstislav Udatny (Prince of Galitsky), Daniil Romanovich (Prince of Volyn), Mstislav Svyatoslavich (Prince of Chernigov) and some other feudal lords responded to the call.
It was 1223. The princes agreed to stop the Mongols in the Polovtsian steppe even before they could attack Russia. During the gathering of the united squad, the Mongolian embassy arrived at the Rurikovich. The nomads suggested that the Russians not stand up for the Polovtsians. The princes ordered the killing of the ambassadors and advanced into the steppe.
Soon in the territory of modern Donetsk region there was a tragic battle at Kalka. 1223 was a year of sadness for the entire Russian land. The coalition of princes and Polovtsy suffered a crushing defeat. The superior forces of the Mongols defeated the united squads. The Polovtsy, flinching under the onslaught, fled, leaving the Russian army without support.
At least 8 princes were killed in the battle, including Mstislav Kievsky and Mstislav Chernigov. Together with them, many noble boyars lost their lives. The battle at Kalka became the black banner. The year 1223 could turn out to be the year of the full invasion of the Mongols, however, after a bloody victory, they reasoned that it was better to return to their native uluses. For several years in the Russian principalities they did not hear anything more about the new formidable horde.
Volga Bulgaria
Shortly before his death, Genghis Khan divided his empire into zones of responsibility, each of which was led by one of the sons of the conqueror. Ulus in the Polovtsian steppes went to Jochi. He died prematurely, and in 1235, by the decision of the kurultai, his son Batu set about organizing a campaign in Europe. The grandson of Genghis Khan gathered a gigantic army and went to conquer countries far away for the Mongols.
The first victim of a new invasion of nomads was the Volga Bulgaria. This state in the territory of modern Tatarstan has been waging cross-border wars with the Mongols for several years. However, until now, the steppe inhabitants have been limited to only small sorties. Now Batu had an army of about 120 thousand people. This colossal army easily captured the main Bulgarian cities: Bulgar, Bilyar, Dzhuketau and Suvar.
The invasion of Russia
Having conquered the Volga Bulgaria and defeated its Polovtsian allies, the aggressors moved further west. Thus began the Mongol conquest of Russia. In December 1237, nomads found themselves on the territory of the Ryazan principality. His capital was taken and mercilessly destroyed. Modern Ryazan was built several tens of kilometers from Old Ryazan, on the site of which there is still only a medieval settlement.
The advanced army of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality fought with the Mongols in the battle of Kolomna. In that battle, one of Genghis Khan's sons, Kulhan, died. Soon the horde was attacked by a detachment of the Ryazan hero Evpatiy Kolovrat, who became a real national hero. Despite stubborn resistance, the Mongols defeated every army and took all new cities.
At the beginning of 1238, Moscow, Vladimir, Tver, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, and Torzhok fell. The small town of Kozelsk defended itself for so long that Batu, having razed it to the ground, called the fortress an “evil city”. In the battle on the City River, a separate corps commanded by the Temnik of Burundi destroyed the combined Russian squad led by Vladimir Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, who was cut off his head.
Novgorod was lucky more than other Russian cities. Having taken Torzhok, the Horde did not dare to go too far to the cold north and turned south. Thus, the Mongol invasion of Russia happily bypassed the key trade and cultural center of the country. Having migrated to the southern steppes, Batu took a short break. He let the horses feed and regrouped the army. The army was divided into several units that solved episodic tasks in the fight against the Polovtsy and Alans.
Already in 1239 the Mongols attacked Southern Russia. Chernigov fell in October. Glukhov, Putivl, Rylsk were ruined. In 1240, the nomads besieged and took Kiev. Soon the same fate awaited Galich. Having plundered key Russian cities, Batu made the Rurikovich his tributaries. Thus began the period of the Golden Horde, which lasted until the 15th century. The principality was recognized as the Principality of Vladimir. Its rulers received permits from the Mongols. This humiliating order was interrupted only with the rise of Moscow.
European hike
The devastating Mongol invasion of Russia was not the last for the European campaign. Continuing the path to the west, the nomads reached the borders of Hungary and Poland. Some Russian princes (like Mikhail Chernigov) fled to these kingdoms, asking for help from the Catholic monarchs.
In 1241, the Mongols took and plundered the Polish cities of Zawihost, Lublin, Sandomierz. The last fell Krakow. Polish feudal lords were able to enlist the help of the Germans and Catholic military orders. The coalition army of these forces was defeated at the Battle of Legnica. Krakow Prince Henry II died in the battle.
The last country affected by the Mongols was Hungary. Having passed the Carpathians and Transylvania, the nomads ravaged Oradea, Temeshvar and Bistrita. Another Mongolian detachment walked fire and sword through Wallachia. The third army reached the banks of the Danube and captured the fortress of Arad.
All this time, the Hungarian king Bela IV was in Pest, where he gathered an army. An army led by Batu himself set off to meet him. In April 1241, two armies clashed in battle on the Shayno River. Bela IV was defeated. The king fled to neighboring Austria, and the Mongols continued to plunder the Hungarian lands. Batu even attempted to cross the Danube and attack the Holy Roman Empire, but eventually abandoned this plan.
Moving west, the Mongols invaded Croatia (also belonging to Hungary) and ravaged Zagreb. Their advance detachments reached the shores of the Adriatic Sea. This was the limit of Mongol expansion. Nomads did not begin to annex Central Europe to their state, satisfied with a lengthy robbery. The borders of the Golden Horde began to pass along the Dniester.